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The life of fat housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is crumbling around her in her middle-class suburban Baltimore home. Her husband, Elmer (David Samson), is a polyester-clad lout who owns an X-rated theater, causing anti-pornography protesters to picket the Fishpaws' house. She also states that "all the neighborhood women spit at me" whenever she is at the shopping mall. Francine's children are Lu-Lu (Mary Garlington), her spoiled, slutty daughter, and Dexter (Ken King), her delinquent, glue-sniffing son who derives illicit pleasure from stomping on women's feet. Also adding to Francine's troubles is her snobby, class-conscious, cocaine-snorting mother, La Rue (Joni Ruth White), who robs Francine blind and only cares about her "valuable shopping time."

Francine seeks solace in her best friend, Cuddles Kovinsky (Edith Massey), an independently wealthy, simple-minded woman and the world's oldest debutante. Cuddles was once the Fishpaws' housekeeper, but she inherited a large sum of money from a very affluent family that she used to work for, and has befriended Francine. This infuriates La Rue, who admonishes Francine, "She was a scrub-woman. Give her... car fare...a ham at Easter, but for God's sake, don't hang around with her!" Cuddles tries to cheer Francine with "seize-the-day" bromides, to no avail.

Francine discovers that her husband is having an affair with his secretary, Sandra Sullivan (Mink Stole), and later confronts them during a tryst at a motel and demands a divorce. Francine then falls into alcoholism and depression, exacerbated by her children's behavior: Lu-Lu becomes pregnant by her delinquent boyfriend, Bo-Bo Belsinger (Stiv Bators), and she tells her mother, "I'm having an abortion, and I can't wait!"; and after Dexter is arrested at a supermarket for stomping on a woman's foot, the media reveal that he's the "Baltimore foot stomper".

Lu-Lu goes to a family planning clinic for an abortion, but is harassed by anti-abortion picketers. She flees, returns home, and tries to induce a miscarriage, causing Francine to call an unwed mothers' home. Two nuns arrive, cart Lu-Lu out of the house, lock her in the trunk of a car, and take her to a Catholic home for unwed mothers. Meanwhile, on Halloween evening, La Rue is shot by Bo-Bo and his friend, who have come to trash the Fishpaw house. La Rue manages to retrieve the gun and shoots Bo-Bo dead. Lu-Lu comes home from the unwed mothers' home and, upon discovering her dead boyfriend, tries to commit suicide by sticking her head in the oven. Francine comes home, sees her daughter's suicide attempt, and faints. After this, Francine's life begins to change. Dexter is released from jail, completely rehabilitated. Lu-Lu suffers a miscarriage from her suicide attempt and sees the error of her ways, turning from a high-school harlot to an artistic flower child who enthuses, "Look, mother, I've discovered macramé!". Francine finally summons the strength to tell off La Rue. A beacon of light arrives in the form of lounge-suit-wearing, Corvette-driving Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter), lifting Francine's spirits. Todd proposes marriage to an elated Francine, who accepts.

However, it is soon revealed that Todd is romantically involved with La Rue and they are conspiring to embezzle Francine's divorce settlement and drive her insane. Meanwhile, Elmer and Sandra break into the house to kill Francine, but are felled by Dexter and Lu-Lu. Dexter steps on Sandra's foot, causing her to accidentally shoot Elmer; Lu-Lu uses her macramé to strangle Sandra. Cuddles and her German chauffeur/fiancé Heintz (Hans Kramm) arrive and run over La Rue and Todd.

The film concludes with a happy ending for Francine, her children, and Cuddles and Heintz.

Polyester was the first Waters film to skirt the mainstream, even garnering an R rating (his previous films were all unrated or rated X). The film was set in a middle-class suburb of Baltimore instead of its slums and bohemian neighborhoods (the setting of Waters' earlier films).

Polyester was a send-up of "women's pictures", an exploitative genre of film that was popular from the 1950–60s and typically featured bored, unfulfilled, or otherwise troubled women, usually middle-aged suburban housewives, finding release or escape through the arrival of a handsome younger man. "Women's pictures" were typically hackneyed B-movies, but Waters specifically styled Polyester after the work of the director Douglas Sirk, making use of similar lighting and editing techniques, even using film equipment and movie-making techniques from Sirk's era.[citation needed]

Odors, especially Francine's particularly keen sense of smell, play an important role in the film. To highlight this, Waters designed Odorama, a "scratch-and-sniff" gimmick inspired by the work of William Castle and the 1960 film Scent of Mystery, which featured a device called Smell-O-Vision. Special cards with spots numbered 1 through 10 were distributed to audience members before the show, in the manner of 3D glasses. When a number flashed on the screen, viewers were to scratch and sniff the appropriate spot. Smells included the scent of flowers, pizza, glue, gas, grass, and feces. For the first DVD release of the film the smell of glue was changed due to, as Waters states, "political correctness". The gimmick was advertised with the tag "It'll blow your nose!"[4]

After being prompted to scratch and sniff the bouquet of flowers, a quick swap was made substituting old ratty sneakers, resulting in a joke on the audience.

The 2011 film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World uses a scratch and sniff card now called "Aromascope", which is advertised as providing the fourth dimension in its "4D" format.

The film was re-screened by Midnight Movies at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2011. The Odorama cards were recreated by Midnight Movies, Little Joe Magazine, and The Aroma Company to allow viewers to interact with the film as originally intended.

Ordinarily, Mr. Waters is not everyone's cup of tea - but Polyester, which opens today at the National and other theaters, is not Mr. Waters' ordinary movie. It's a very funny one, with a hip, stylized humor that extends beyond the usual limitations of his outlook. This time, the comic vision is so controlled and steady that Mr. Waters need not rely so heavily on the grotesque touches that make his other films such perennial favorites on the weekend Midnight Movie circuit. Here's one that can just as well be shown in the daytime.

Samples from the film were used in the song "Frontier Psychiatrist" by The Avalanches. The opening of the song samples a conversation between Francine Fishpaw and Principal Kirk that starts with the latter asking "Is Dexter ill today?", and continues as follows:

"Francine Fishpaw: No, Mr. Kirk, Dexter's in school!

School Principal: I'm afraid he's not, Mrs. Fishpaw. Dexter's truancy problem is way out of hand! The Baltimore County School Board has decided to expel Dexter from the entire public school system.

Francine Fishpaw: Why Mr. Kirk—I'm as upset as you to learn of Dexter's truancy—but surely expulsion is not the answer?

School Principal: I'm afraid expulsion is the only answer. It is the opinion of the entire staff that Dexter is criminally insane... "